MINNEAPOLIS: The full allotment of tickets for the Big Ten ladies’s basketball match was offered practically two weeks in the past, assuring the attendance complete will greater than double the occasion file set final 12 months.
These groups aren’t about to be awestruck by massive and loud crowds.
From Iowa to Maryland, with Indiana and Ohio State in between, the convention has continued to stage nicely-attended video games in a development that means it has endurance lengthy after Caitlin Clark — now the profession scoring chief amongst all main school gamers — launches her final school 3-pointer.
“They’re not just here for me. I’m sure I help, but at the end of the day, we have a really great team and a really great culture and that’s what makes it so fun,” Clark mentioned Sunday after Iowa’s offered-out dwelling slate concluded with a win over Big Ten common-season champion Ohio State.
The third-ranked Hawkeyes (26-4, 15-3) completed second in convention play. They enter the bracket in a quarterfinal recreation on Friday evening in opposition to both seventh-seeded Penn State or tenth-seeded Wisconsin.
The Big Ten couldn’t have timed its choice to carry the match in Minneapolis any higher, with the host enviornment Target Center a handy drive of lower than 5 hours from Iowa’s campus for every of Clark’s ultimate two seasons in black and gold.
The Hawkeyes beat the Buckeyes within the championship recreation final 12 months in entrance of a Big Ten Tournament-record crowd of 9,505. The 5-day complete of 47,923 in 2023 will probably be smashed this time, with a ultimate determine of greater than 109,000 anticipated. That’s a median of about 15,500 per session. Tickets are solely obtainable on the secondary market.
“We’ve played in environments like that all year, so we’ll be ready for it,” mentioned Jacy Sheldon, the star guard for fourth-ranked Ohio State and the convention’s third-main scorer.
The Buckeyes (26-4, 16-2) face both eighth-seeded Maryland or ninth-seeded Illinois of their quarterfinal on Friday. Iowa has two consecutive Big Ten Tournament titles to defend, however like Ohio State the overarching aim this weekend is to win sufficient to safe a No. 1 seed for the NCAA Tournament.
“We’ve done a great job of handling success when we’ve won for, basically, two months straight,” Buckeyes coach Kevin McGuff mentioned. “Now we’ve got to handle a tough loss.”
The two-recreation first spherical is Wednesday, adopted by a 4-recreation second spherical on Thursday. Indiana and Michigan State grabbed the coveted double byes together with Ohio State and Iowa.
That Buckeyes-Hawkeyes rematch within the championship recreation on Sunday is much from a given.
The twelfth-ranked Hoosiers (24-4, 15-3) had a 17-level win over Iowa on Feb. 22. Star middle Mackenzie Holmes shot 17 for 18 from the ground in wins over Northwestern and Maryland final week, fueling their quest to safe a spot as one of many 16 hosts for first- and second-spherical NCAA Tournament video games. Holmes needed to go away the final recreation with an aggravation of the left knee damage that has hampered her all through her profession.
The Spartans are on a 5-recreation profitable streak, boasting the sixth-greatest scoring common (84.5 factors per recreation) in NCAA Division I play that trails solely the nation-main Hawkeyes (92.7) within the Big Ten.
Beside Ohio State, Iowa, Indiana and Michigan State, Nebraska should be a lock for the NCAA Tournament. Michigan and Maryland are bubble groups that might use a win or two this week to be secure. ESPN’s newest projection has Penn State as one of many final 4 groups to overlook the minimize for at-massive bids.
The Big Ten accounts for 5 of the highest 15 dwelling attendance figures within the nation. Iowa (14,998 per recreation) offered out the whole season and may nicely have topped South Carolina (16,489) for the nationwide lead if Carver-Hawkeye Arena had been larger. Indiana (10,038) is fifth, Ohio State (7,559) is ninth, Maryland (7,545) is tenth and Nebraska (6,088) is fifteenth.
The Hawkeyes additionally triggered a sellout of each true highway recreation they performed this season. Their go to to Ohio State drew 18,660 followers, a program file for the Buckeyes.
The Big Ten has 5 of the highest 16 offensive groups within the nation, with Penn State (seventh), Ohio State (fifteenth) and Indiana (sixteenth). Clark is by far the person chief at 32.3 factors per recreation.
Last week, Clark handed Lynette Woodard for the all-time scoring file in main ladies’s school basketball and overtook Pete Maravich because the profession NCAA chief for both gender with 3,685 factors.
With 16 extra factors, Clark will crack the all-time high 10 for all ranges. Steve Platt, who performed for Huntington College in Indiana in National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics competitors, had 3,700 profession factors from 1971-74.
Clark has six triple-doubles this season. She set the NCAA single-season file with 162 made 3-pointers and counting and the Big Ten profession file with 509.
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AP freelance author John Bohnenkamp in Iowa City, Iowa, contributed to this report.
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(This story has not been edited by News18 employees and is revealed from a syndicated information company feed – Associated Press)
